Visit in Kenya

Just after New Year’s I went to Nyeri, Kenya to visit a friend from the University of Alabama. We met there when I was starting up things with Apwonjo, and we were connected since she is from Kenya. She was home visiting and invited me to come stay with her family. So I spent nearly a week at her home with her family. It was a very unique experience. Jane has been in America for 10 years now, so she understands my culture pretty well. Since we are friends from the context of my home culture, I felt very comfortable in her home. Also having been in East Africa for nearly 5 months plus the 2 months the year before and various cultural lessons really helped me with the culture of her family. I knew more of what to do or not to do from my own experiences, whereas previous visitors had not had the cultural experiences that I have. I don’t know if this has made any sense so far; so I’ll give a specific: greetings in East Africa are VERY important! Knowing that, I made sure to greet her family every time I saw them, when I woke up, and before I went to bed. Her mom especially really appreciated this. So, mine and Jane’s experiences and our friendship provided for a unique situation for me. Before then my visits with African families had always been visits and never reached beyond the expected formalities. Staying longer, feeling welcome and comfortable gave me interesting insight into a middle class African family’s home. Shawn had gone over some culture orientation things with us before I left. I observed how true those things were while staying with Jane’s family. Culturally, it was a really interesting, unique, valuable experience for me. Personally, it was wonderful to spend time with someone from home. I really enjoyed talking with her, hearing about home and learning about her home. I had many firsts on that trip, too: first motorcycle ride, first taste of many traditional Kenyan meals (that were really good), first solo ride on public transport, first crossing the border solo (at 5 am), first trip away from my team since I got here… It was a really good trip and I really enjoyed spending time with Jane and her family. Oh, I also met a displaced family from the clashes in Kenya last year. Mama Koi and her family were living on Jane’s family’s compound. Jane’s mom had a stroke last fall and Mama Koi has been really helpful to her. Mama Koi and her 3 children had to leave in the night in a covered truck with helicopter protection to get to a safe place. They were left in Nyeri and eventually connected with Jane’s family. They’ve become a part of her family now. Her children were precious. The youngest was just a year old, which means he was only an infant when they fled. The children were very sweet. Jane and I took them and her nephew and nieces to the park on day to play. It was really special to see those children who are so quiet and shy laughing and playing. Mama Koi was very open and told many stories about her experiences in the clashes. Usually, Jane passed them on to me since I don’t speak Kikuyu or Swahili. The trip was quite a learning experience overall.